Martin Gregorie wrote:
Bruce Greef wrote:


Whether the K21 is the best option - again too heavy, and too expensive.


If the K21 is too heavy, maybe you should consider throwing a bit of
money at the winch too - and/or consider a Puchacz. Its a lightly loaded
glider and relatively cheap to boot. I've been flying one a lot recently
and had forgotten how nice it is to fly and how good its air brakes are.
Its only real drawback is a rather narrow winching window - Vmw is 59 kts.

Winching: our Supacat has only a 240 hp Deutz diesel, but I've seen it
winch launch an ASH-25 several times.


Hi Martin

The winch has plenty power - but we have one runway that is only 1300m, stony
and uphill to boot. At the other location we have a less powerful winch (220Hp),
but 2000m to launch on. It is also hard stony ground though.

So - we use single strand wire, that does not like the heavy gliders. The Grob
103 Twin Astir is notorious for breaking the wire. Multistrand gets eroded too
quickly by the terrain. I don't know whether UHMWPE (Spectra/Dyneema) would be
any use on this - or would get cut up by the field.

Puchacz is a consideration. Although there are some reservations about it's
alleged propensity to occasionally resist spin recoveries, the primary reason
why the pooch is not on our shopping list is that very narrow winch speed window.

Bruce